2025 № 4 (55)

UDC 749.1

BBC 85.128

DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2025-4-384-411

For cit.: Kochetkova A.D. Japanese Export Furniture in the Russian Interior Ensemble of the 18th Century. On the Example of the Cabinets from the Counts Sheremetev Collection. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2025, no. 4, pp. 384-411. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226-0072-2025-4-384-411. (In Russian) 

Kochetkova Anastasia D. 

Art Historian, PhD Applicant, Department of the History of Russian Art, Faculty of History, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7178-1188

anast.mastyukova@yandex.ru 

Japanese Export Furniture in the Russian Interior Ensemble of the 18th Century. On the Example of the Cabinets from the Counts Sheremetev Collection

Abstract. The article reveals the role of Japanese lacquer furniture in the object-spatial environment of the Russian interior in the second half of the 18th century, marked by an interest in the chinoiserie phenomenon. Using the example of paired cabinets from the collection of the Counts Sheremetev, the author considers the main artistic features of Japanese export products in the ‘picturesque style’, highly appreciated by representatives of the Russian aristocracy. The study of a significant number of archival sources shows how the owners’ attitude towards Japanese lacquerware changed throughout the 18th century. The unique items were seen as rare ‘kunstukes’: at first, they occupied an honourable place in the structure of the noble kunstkamera, and then served as important elements of the interior decoration of park pavilions. This refers to the formation of cultural pluralism and, as a result, a genuine interest in the distant and mysterious East. In this regard, it is proposed to consider the objects of Japanese lacquer furniture, which were previously thought to be fairly utilitarian, as valuable collectibles of the Enlightenment era. 

Keywords: Japan, decorative arts, furniture, chinoiserie, 18th century, Classicism, interior decoration, Russian country estate, Kuskovo

Sources:

Materialy domovoi kontory knyazei Kurakinykh: 1764–1769 [Materials of the Household Office of the Princes Kurakins]. Otdel pis’mennykh istochnikov Gosudartvennogo istoricheskogo muzeya [Manuscripts Department of the State Historical Museum], f. 3, inv. “N”, storage unit 981, 378 l. (In Russian)

Opis’ Kunshkamory: 1764 [The Inventory of the Kunstkamera: 1764]. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive], f. 1088, inv. 3, storage unit 1295, 68 l. (In Russian)

Opis’ selu Kuskovu: 1810 [Inventory of the Kuskovo Village: 1810]. Gosudarstvennyi dvortsovo-parkovyi muzei-zapovednik “Ostankino i Kuskovo” [Ostankino and Kuskovo State Museum and Heritage Site], inv. RD-153, 690 l. (In Russian)

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Received 29.04.2025 

Accepted 11.08.2025